Hoops

36ers vs Blaze

Isaac, you are the awesome one

DB5 - 6 - he used it twice!

Isaac, do you regularly screen your post output to ensure that you are giving fair use to each of the myriad words in the dictionary, or is it just for special cases such as fedup.

Fedups MUM, you might want to work on grammar and comprehension in addition to the swearing.

Did that 4 out of 1,800 replies include this one Isaac, or is it now 5 times?

X, "THEY TOOK HIS JOOOORRBBB" - a great SP episode!

"Creek is a stud" Are you a 15 yo girl? "

Can't wait for the Sixers "fireman's calendar". Wolfman oiled up, Brucey doing "steel blue", Jeff working a blacksmith's fire.....should be very popular.

.... d' took err jooooobs! LOL guys

Someone mentioned earlier that Bruce's D was terrible on Goulding. Kind of true in that he got caught on screens a bit, but to be fair to him, he is a PG and Goulding has a fair bit of size on him. Bruce has about as much chance of bothering Goulding's shot as Shannon does.

I did like Howard's game overall last night. First time I'd seen him have any impact whatsoever, so it was well overdue, but a relief nonetheless. Didn't really pay attention to him off the ball, so can't comment on that, but I thought his D was pretty solid most of the time. Certainly glad we had him to guard Goulding rather than one of our platoon of PGs.

Very nice to see a team that defends the paint worse than us! I retract my earlier belief that the Blaze will finish above us. We will now finish no worse than 7th!

Glad everyone spotted Howard standing around on half the plays.

Guy is obviously someone who runs the fast break alot and tends to prefer to camp a spot on the court. Seems to love that corner jumper. Seems to have one of the worst takeoffs for a shot I've seen. Good posture in the arms, but seems to leap forward at the ring then try and lean back to land straight. Fell on his butt nearly every jump shot.... wierd.

I'd compare Ron Howard to Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole for Man Utd in Soccer:

Both are great at scoring the open goal, but prefer to wait for the ball to come to them rather than go after it themselves.

Reminds me of the drunk Hillbillies on South Park shouting incoherantly: "DEY-DERK-URR-JERBS!"

I agree with the flat footed / stagnant offence comment - happens far too often IMO.

4 guys spread the floor and one guy dances outside the 3 point line until it's time to jack a prayer.

Must be better options than that.

Marty should have said the same thing to the whole team. there were a heap of moments where everyone was just standing still, think its a bit harsh to single out Howard. the whole team needed a kick in the arse at times.

Tornado, you must have been watching a different game to me. I thought Howards work off the ball was great.

Jack Toft again with the quick wit!

Howard was yelled at by Clark during the second; managed to get something like "If you want the ball, you've got to go get it".

Howard was camping the corner for half the game and was expecting someone to pass to him THROUGH crowded passing lanes and he didn't even attempt to make space himself. Are Marty yelled at him, Howard started moving more and it payed off.

Reffing was fairly bulk standard. Some ghost fouls called there. Wortho got jipped on some very soft fouls; though the hack on Creek was legit.

"Creek is a stud" Are you a 15 yo girl?

No Deal, would be nice if Wortho leaves and comes to the sixers

Here's my 2 Cents:

Our imports played exactly how we needed them to, they were aggressive, looking to create. Watching Howard off the ball is a marvel, he moves constantly, we just need to find him more often.

Ballinger was good in spots offensively, went missing for a while but played solid D all night, a few huge blocks also. Staying out of Foul trouble really makes him a much more dangerous player.

Our bench play was great, Creek, Bruce & Johnson were all great. I will most likely get flamed for this, but from last nights performance, Bruce is every bit as good as Gibson. Very similar players, not much between them. Creek is a stud, if he adds a consistant mid range jump shot he will be a 20ppg guy in no time.

I'd like to see us limit our rotations. No need for Daly to play those 4 mins, we would have been better off giving those minutes to Howard.

For the Blaze, they certainly have some talented individuals, but they clearly aren't on the same page. How many times did they throw the ball to no one? Worthington looks frustrated, I doubt he will be back for them next season.

Goulding was unbelievably inefficient last night. Why shoot a fade away with a guy right in your face? give up the ball and pick your spots. He would still have had around 19 points if he left those rediculous shots alone and just took the odd contested jumper mixed with the open looks that he nearly always makes. Also he is the greatest matador defender in the league.

Ira Clark is a beast, they need to go to him in the post as often as possible. That spin baseline reverse dunk was nasty!

I didn't think the refs were too bad for the most part, a few howlers both ways, and they lost control towards the end but better than some games I have watched this season.

Solid game by the Sixers, but not a game to hang our hats on. If we play like that away against NZ we will get belted.

Ira's reverse dunk was huge - as was Ballinger's put back.

I'm with most people - very happy to see DJ utilised as he should be.

Not worth chiming in on the refs.

Ron Howard plays quite a solid game and is a quiet achiever. The problem with quiet achievers is they tend to get under-noticed. 14 points @ 63% with 5 DR is not a bad game.

I think the Sixers need to work on their help D. A couple of times the man was beaten and the Gold Coast were given a gap as big as the SE Freeway to the rim. (and the consequent bucket)

Also how nice was that Ira Clarke (i think) dunk, where he was underneath and came around from the other side with the one handed jam. that looked pretty epic.

Did any anyone else notice Howard open and creating opportunities for himself but no one reading it?

The only thing I want to say is hallelujah, we used DJ the way he should be and it basically won us the game in the 4th!

More of that please Marty! Give the kid a heap of court time and tell your guards to stop ignoring him when he posts up! (As they did several times in this game too).

DJ just needs experience and confidence and he will start producing offensively. Defensively we can take our lumps for awhile. We're not making the playoffs this season anyway.

Eddie threw the ball away. I think he should have technically passed it to "everybody loves Raymond" Hunt, but I think Ron Howard was saying, "He was passing it to me man!", then Ron Howard picked the ball up, politely passed it to him, and said to Ray "There you go man"

Probably a big chink in Eddie's armour. A couple of times a few people have got under his skin and he has chomped on the hook like a marlin in FNQ.

"What happened near hte end of the game when Shannon was fouled by Golding? Looked like Shannon wanted to go on with it and Howard had to calm him down."

Eddie was mugged not once, not twice but numerous times by Goulding who, when challenged by Eddie mouthed off and shrugged his shoulders. Eddie then decided he wanted a piece of Goulding but was calmed down by Ron Howard. Ray "Mr Monopoly Man" Hunt decided to put his oar in and grab Eddie,from behind, who flared. Ron Howard then put his arm around Ray Hunt and walked him away from any conflict. I don't know what Ron said but Hunt ended up laughing and the game continued.

Contrary to what Xtatik and others have said the refs were abysmal. I would like to know how many fouls were called on the Blaze players compared to those on the Sixers by Ray Hunt. Ira Clark seemed to be given carte blanche to hold or push the Sixer players while soft off the ball fouls seemed to be regularly called on the Sixers when the Blaze needed to stop a run. Tom Mills is inept and seems to have a big dose of small man syndrome even though he is not that vertically challenged. Fillmier reverted to his inconsistent calling of the game, what is a foul at one end, usually the opposition, is play on at the other.

The Blaze on this afternoons display have two guns, Gibson & Goulding. A better than average player, when he decides to pay ball, Worthington. A thug, Ira Clark then an average or just below average group of players.

What happened near hte end of the game when Shannon was fouled by Golding? Looked like Shannon wanted to go on with it and Howard had to calm him down.

Anybody down that end get a good look - too far for me from the north western corner!!

I agree with the 7 or 8 man rotation, i think our main 8 should be

Shannon
Ballinger
Hill
Howard
Creek
Johnson
Bruce
Carter (when he returns)

Holmes and Dowdell should play 5-10 mins max, unless showing real good signs in their minutes and one of the above is playing worse.
Not that these 2 are terrible, just allows more opportunity for players to get in sync with each other.

Id rotate the team something like this like this

PG Shannon(30mins)/Carter(10 mins)
SG Howard (20 mins)/Bruce (15 mins)/Cater (5 mins)
SF Hill (20 mins)/Creek (20 mins)
PF Ballinger (25 mins)/ Creek (5mins)/Holmes (8 mins)/Dowdell (2mins)
C Jonson (25 mins)/Ballinger (10 mins)/Dowdell (5 mins)

Im beginning to wonder if we are ever going to see some good consistent refereeing ever in this league. there were shocking calls made both ways. Towards the end Shannon virtually had to be rugby tackled before the refs called it then were wondering why a fight nearly broke out. you gotta be kidding me. Some shocking calls on Gold coasts behalf to and im sick of people say it all comes out in the wash because it doesn't.

Was i the only person there that saw Howard on the court? he had a good game but there were so many other chances he generated for himself but it seemed that no one was watching to make the pass.

And why did howard only get 26 minutes of game time? he is getting paid six figures to play 2.5 quarters. while balls and shannon got the 30. seems hard for howard to make a decent impact when he is on the sidelines a lot. however when he did get the ball he did good. I know people keep saying they are subbed to keep the intensity up but in the past when a player starts getting on a roll you leave them on. not only that though they are professional athletes, 26 minutes is a walk in the park for some of these guys.

That game showed both teams have a lot of work to do. glad we got the win but was not convincing. feel free to bag me or whatever but thats how i felt after that game.

Looked like a good crowd on OneHD. Any idea of the crowd?

36ers had 7 players score double figures.

Am I the only one that finds Corey Winguard's commentating annoying?

Half Time:Gold Coast
Worthington:12 @63% +4 rebounds
Gibson 11 @63% +3 Rebounds
36ERS
Shannon 13 @45% +3 Fouls
Balls 11 @63%
Howard 10 @80%

In Port Lincoln for work, can't get the game as even though the town has digital TV, they don't get One HD. Pretty poor. First game I haven't been at all year!